1. offer, vouchsafe, impart, accord, furnish, provide, supply, donate, contribute. Give,confer,grant,present may mean that something concrete or abstract is bestowed on one person by another. Give is the general word: to give someone a book, permission, etc.Confer usually means to give an honor or a favor; it implies courteous and gracious giving: to confer a degree.Grant is limited to the idea of acceding to a request; it may apply to the bestowal of privileges, or the fulfillment of an expressed wish: to grant a charter, a prayer, permission, etc.Present, a more formal word than give, usually implies a certain ceremony in the giving: to present a citation to a regiment.18. cede, yield.

Give in "yield" is from 1610s; give out is mid-14c., "publish, announce;" meaning "run out, break down" is from 1520s. Give up "surrender" is mid-12c. To give (someone) a cold seems to reflect the old belief that one could be cured of disease by deliberately infecting others. What gives? "what is happening?" is attested from 1940. Give-and-take (n.) is originally from horse racing (1769) and refers to races in which bigger horses were given more weight to carry, lighter ones less. General sense attested by 1778.